Itâ€™s a good rule that states that if youâ€™re in a DPS position or in a tanking position, there is no reason for you to have to change your role to heal. For one thing, you donâ€™t have the spec or the bonuses or the gear to pull it off long term in an encounter.

If youâ€™re a Shadow Priest, all you need to do is simply wail on the boss.

Every possible course of action should be considered by every player no matter what they do in order to beat the encounter.

In a case where rules may clash, rules that are lower on the scale will supercede the ones above it.

Letâ€™s apply it.

Shadow Priests will almost never be called upon to drop their Shadow form to heal. Itâ€™s inefficient and often times unnecessary. But a Shadow Priest is still a Priest and they have access to some valuable cooldowns.

There is one in particular called Divine Hymn.

Donâ€™t shy away from using it if you have to. As one of the healing leads, I look and see what cooldowns are available. I wonâ€™t hesitate to ask for Shadow Priests to Divine Hymn. I wonâ€™t hesitate to ask a Ret Paladin to use their bubble-sacrificing abilitiy. Feral Druids know that my Priest is the Hummer of healers in the guild and that I am one heck of a mana guzzling machine when I hit the accelerator. Yet Iâ€™m playing a hybrid class, right? (Thatâ€™s a joke).

Anubâ€™arak is a stressing fight for healers. This oversized frost beetle ramps it up a notch when he hits the 30% mark and everyone in the raid starts taking damage. A quick glance at the cooldowns available is followed by me barking out names and abilities. They respond with either an affirmative or a negative. This isnâ€™t the time to debate why their cooldown isnâ€™t up. Maybe a Paladin had to bubble earlier in the fight to survive. Stuff like that gets discussed after the fact, not during.

I run a total of four Priests during raids. Two are Shadow and the other two heal. Shadow Priests know theyâ€™re not going to be asked to drop form and heal (usually). But four Priests means access to four Divine Hymns which is extremely powerful during a a phase with high incoming damage.

The final point I want to stress is that a Shadow Priest isnâ€™t required to keep the raid alive for long periods of time. Thatâ€™s not their job. But they can help keep the raid stable enough for everyone else to stay alive and pile on their damage.

If youâ€™re in a top 100 worldwide raiding guild, your Shadow Priests might not have to do it. For the rest of us, every option needs to be considered.

Epic

About me

My name is Matticus and this is my World of Warcraft blog. Here you can read about my thoughts regarding healing as a priest. As a former guild master, I also write about guild and raid related topics. The blog has expanded to include thoughts from other regular contributors. The aim of this blog is to help you grow and improve. My unending goal is to have something relevant and useful in every post. or more, you can check out my columns on Blizzard Watch. Visit theGuildmasters to talk shop with other GMs, raid leaders, and officers. Or if you're looking to join a guild, check out my guild Integrity.